Something smells sweet….

Early schmerly. The 2007-08 Senators are starting to make people ignore calendars and bare fingers and talk about the 1976-77 Canadiens. No lie.
Coach John Paddock did it a couple of weeks ago — connecting his team to the edition of the Habs that compiled a 60-8-12 regular-season record then went 12-2 in the playoffs to win the Cup.

Early schmerly is right, as in early exit for Paddock, and early exit for the Senators.

Loss my Cool there, had a bit of a meltdown. I’m better now though. Went to the Doctor’s yesterday he gave me stronger Meds. He said to take these little pills when I was feeling upset and I will feel great and nothing will bother me. So I will take them at the start of the 3rd period and by the time the game is over it doesn’t matter if the Habs lose it will still have control and I will be happy.

The only down side to this is if Boston wins I will still be happy. That part sucks.

Lets Go Habs. Lets make a statement tonight that we will not give you Bruins another game. For the next 13 games played…….

…O’Byrne would take Mark Streit’s spot on the blue line, but the Swiss veteran will still be in uniform. The Canadiens need him to quarterback the power play and Carbonneau will find a place for him on one of the forward lines.

The only Canadiens on the ice at the TD Banknorth Garden yesterday afternoon were the healthy scratches from Sunday’s game, and ailing defenceman Francis Bouillon.

Bouillon, who has a bruised ankle, could be ready to play tonight, but Carbonneau didn’t sound optimistic.

“We’d have to see how he does today and whether he has a pain tomorrow, but I’d say it’s unlikely,” Carbonneau said….

Agreed, Chris, although I don’t really like those Leafs. In fact, I’m atually happier when they lose. I find that a lot of fans are, both in the U.S. and Canada. It probably has a great deal to do with the pretentious fanbase and greedy corporation that that organization has become.

Anyway, after the Habs, I’m especially partial to those two Alberta teams. They epitomize everything that we love about playoff hockey and they are so much fun to watch. And for the record, the Habs weren’t the last Canadian franchise to win the Stanley Cup, the Flames of 2004 were. They just weren’t allowed to have it for some reason.

What a pathetic display of playoff hockey by the Ottawa Senators. Wow. How does that happen exactly? They made everything way too easy for Pittsburgh. Crosby, not challenged. Malkin, not challenged. Fleury, not challenged. The questionable Penguin defense, not challenged. I wonder if this will hurt the Penguins when they meet a team that actually wants to win. The Rangers will challenge them, on all counts. Crosby will be forced to cry. Malkin will look confused as he did in Vancouver when Team Canada pulverized him and his teammates. The Penguin defense will be tested again and again.

“Thats right they scored that goal that was not allowed and there was no reason for it not to be allowed.”

They scored two that were disallowed with no plausible explanations, one of which won the Cup.

“But you know Buttman needs to seel hockey down in hicksville usa”

It doesn’t need to be sold that way. The U.S. is full of passionate hockey fans. The game sells itself. I don’t understand why Bettman feels that there’s a need to sell hockey to an already sold fanbase. It’s stupid. And such a conspiracy exists (which it evidently does), then why do we even bother getting our hopes up? Perhaps we’re stupid.

Admittedly, Don, I’ve been living in Canada for nearly eight years now, so I might be ignorantly going on memories of what it was like prior to my move. However, the only franchises that I can think of that have less than 8,000 fans attending each home game are the ones that are losing. Don’t forget, as much as you don’t like it, the die hard hockey fans only comprise a small portion of the game-going fanbase. It’s those fair weather bandwagoners that comprise the largest part, and if the team is losing, then these casual fans will either find another team to support, or something entirely unrelated to do. I’ve even witnessed this in Toronto, where many casual fans that I know have abandoned the Leafs in search of greener pastures. Adn then there are those who are in denial or on the fence. For instance, a friend of mine follows the Leafs until they lose (but never actually goes to any games), and then claims to be a Red Wings fan… an instant follower of the President’s Trophy winners, how convenient.